China Africa development fund to open its regional office in Nairobi

By O’Brien Kimani

China Africa Development Fund-CAD plans to open its regional office in Nairobi by December this year strengthening Kenya’s place as the African premiere investment destination.

CAD Fund Chairman Chi Jianxin says Nairobi has been picked due to its strategic position in the regional and Kenya’s fledgling economic expansion.

The Fund manages 300 billion shillings to stimulate investment in Africa by Chinese companies in power generation, transportation infrastructure, natural resources, manufacturing, and other sectors.

In the last ten years, Nairobi has fast risen to become a magnet for major Chinese multi-national companies setting up their base in Africa.

Already close to Ten Chinese Companies have set up their headquarters in Nairobi cementing Kenya’s position as the regional investment hub.

Kenya is on the frontline in pursuing China to set up the African Yuan clearing house in Nairobi as the capital aims to become the financial hub of the continent.

A clearing house would see the Renminbi currency, of which the yuan is the unit; emerge as a regular common settlement currency which is currently dominated by the US dollar.

The Kenyan capital is set to add a feather to her growing profile with the China Africa Development Fund planning to set up her base here in Nairobi before the end of this year.

Deputy President William Ruto who is on a working trip to China urged the bank to help Kenya implement funding in infrastructure, housing and health sector.

The creation of CAD Fund was announced as one of the “Eight Measures” for Sino-African relations at the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2006.

It was established in June 2007 with a 100 billion shillings of initial funding by the China Development Bank and is envisioned to grow to half a trillion shillings by the year 2020.